Economist to speak on reforming the welfare state

March 26, 1998

KALAMAZOO -- A proposal for welfare state reform in post-communist
countries will be presented in a lecture Wednesday, April 8, at
Western Michigan University.

Dr. Janos Kornai, the Allie S. Freed Professor of Economics
at Harvard University, will speak at 3 p.m. in Room 3508 of Knauss
Hall. His topic will be "Reforming the Welfare State in Post-Socialist
Economies."

The free talk is the final session of the WMU Department of
Economics' 34th annual guest lecture-seminar series titled "When
Is Transition Over? Economic Reform in Post-Communist and Communist
Countries." The year-long series focused on the dramatic
economic changes sweeping through Central and Eastern Europe,
the former Soviet Union and China.

Kornai will propose that designing welfare state reform begin
with a set of guiding principles that include economic, ethical,
legal and political concerns, rather than looking strictly at
what is best financially or economically. He will illustrate his
ideas using examples of health sector reform in post-communist
countries such as Hungary.

Kornai also is a research fellow at Collegium Budapest and
a research professor at the Institute of Economics at the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences. He has served on the Scientific Advisory
Council of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
was vice chairperson of the United Nations Committee for Development
Planning and has been president of the Hungarian Social Science
Association, the European Economic Association and the Econometric
Society.

The author of more than 10 books and 50 journal articles, Kornai
has been extremely influential in the field of Soviet-type economics
and in the new study of transition economics. His well-known book,
"The Road to a Free Economy. Shifting from a Socialist System:
The Example of Hungary," was published in 15 languages.

The Department of Economics co-sponsors the lecture-seminar
series with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
in Kalamazoo. It is directed by Dr. Annette N. Brown, assistant
professor of economics.